THE ALCHEMICAL STUDIES OF SCOT 85 



Saracens are spoken of as foreigners. On the other 

 hand, much had evidently been taken from Arabic 

 sources, as is plain from the names given to several 

 of the vessels used in alchemy, such as the alembic 

 and aluclel. Indeed, Unay and Melchia, who are 

 quoted in the Liher Luminis, must have been Moors, 

 for the corresponding passage of the Liher Dedali 

 describes them as from ' Lamacha of the Saracens.' 

 Both these texts agree in showing such familiarity 

 with the process of refining sulphur that one is led 

 to suppose the Secreta, their common original, may 

 have been composed in Sicily. The Liber Luminis 

 says of one of the alums that it is 'brought from 

 Spain : ' an expression agreeing well with the notion 

 of a Sicilian author, who would naturally speak of 

 Spain as a foreign land. 



Leaving, however, these questions of origin and 

 derivation, let us come to that of the chemical 

 doctrine taught in the book which Michael Scot 

 compiled, or at least translated. The title of the 

 Liber Luminis Luminum is a significant one, and 

 has a real relation to the contents of the work 

 itself.^ To discover the sense which it must be held 



^ Titles resembling this are not uncommon in the literature of 

 alchemy. Thus the Paris ms. 6514 has two treatises, both called Lumen 

 Luminum and both ascribed to Eases. The latter of these, the Liher 

 Lumen Luminum ct perfecti Magisterii, is that which has been printed 

 by Zetzner in the Theatram Chcmicum, under the name of Aristotle. 

 It contains, as we have already observed, the Liber XII. aquarum and 

 other material derived from the Liber Emanuelis. The former treatise 

 bearing the name of the Liber Lumen Luminum in the Paris ms. 

 (pp. 113-120) is remarkable on account of the words with which it closes : 

 'explicit liber autoris invidiosi,' which Berthelot notes, but does not 

 attempt to explain. The Mappa of the Pseudo-Archelaus mentions the 

 ' Liber invidiosus ' (' quia liber iste invidiosus est ab omnibus homini- 

 bus')j but what may be the true reading of the matter is found in the 

 Liber Dyabesi or book of the distillation of the land-tortoise (ms. Rice, 

 p. 4ro.) where these words occur : 'Omnia ista pondera fuerunt occulta a 

 philosophis, et dederunt nobis alia pondera . . . quia fuerunt invidiosi,' 

 i.e. unwilling to make public the secrets of their art. In later days the 

 title Lumen Luminum is found in use by Raymond Lull and his school. 



